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  • MacTavish WIP #3

    December
    4
    2006

    black scottish terrier scottie custom oil painting dog portrait in progress
    His underpainting is complete. The next step for this cute little Scottie painting is the darkest darks and the lightest lights.

    A little insight: I don’t see black his coat at all. What may appear to you to be black or gray, isn’t. I don’t use even a tiny amount of black oil paint in any of my pet paintings, and haven’t in years. The most natural darks aren’t really black at all in natural light with natural shadows. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day (who is colorblind, go figure), and had a hard time convincing her that clouds aren’t really white, and snow is blue. Now I’ve put her whole color wheel out of whack.

    I learned this from Johannes Vermeer. He never painted with black (aka mars black) at all. I believe this is why my pet portraits are always so vivid and lifelike. There’s very little white, and absolutely no black.

    Have a look around you today, and really look at the colors of what you’re seeing. I think you’ll be surprised at what you see.

    {6 Comments}

    1
    Lisa said,

    Yep – that would be me . . . colorblind as a bat. 🙂 Wait… are bats colorblind?

    Anyways – I can see black 🙂 Beautiful job MacTavish – – I always think your underpaintings are beautiful, even if you tell me they aren’t done yet. :meow:

    12.4.2006 @ 12:57 pm
    2
    Nancy said,

    H e looks awesome….You must have uesd blue, cause I see lots of blue in the painting.

    12.4.2006 @ 1:42 pm
    3
    Two Sirius said,

    Interesting – thanks! I have an eye for color, and an excellent color memory, but I don’t paint, and I always love looking at things in new ways.

    12.4.2006 @ 4:38 pm
    4
    Karri said,

    As always, your work is just amazing.

    12.4.2006 @ 11:16 pm
    5
    Friglet said,

    He’s adorable!

    12.5.2006 @ 2:49 am
    6
    Chele said,

    Beautiful! I’m a scottie nut (and a fellow painter who also doesn’t use black), and you’ve done an awesome job getting that terrier personality to shine through on the canvas. He’s gorgeous.

    12.7.2006 @ 3:40 pm

    Sorry, comments are now closed.


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